NA'W OUTLOOKS IN MEDICINE. 371 



general measure by wliicb. the stricken organism may be nursed 

 back to healtb. 



And if we mumble and shift as we face legitimate inquiry as 

 to the nature of disease and of remedial measures, and strive to 

 foster the old conception of the body's hidden mechanisms as of a 

 " strange internal kingdom of which we are the hapless and help- 

 less monarchs," we surely can not justly protest if the baffled 

 inquirer turn to the charlatan. 



While in many cases the patient is so ignorant, so heedless, so 

 indifferent, so little in control of his mental outfit, that the simple 

 dictum of the doctor may convey all that is wise, it is still, I think, 

 true that usually a clear and simple explanation of his condition 

 and an enlistment of his intelligence, or that of his friends, in the 

 nature of his malady and the measures proposed for its removal, 

 not only often contribute to success, but also, on the ipart of the 

 physician, are more dignified and more humane. 



But, beyond this phase of helpfulness, the physician has the 

 largest opportunity in his intimate dealings with his charges to 

 so counsel and instruct that, especially in the routine of household 

 life, the fundamental principles of healthy living may be under- 

 stood and followed. 



I am aware that to many physicians this is now the accus- 

 tomed way ; but it might, I think, wisely be the way more often 

 trod. 



Again, the practitioner of medicine has facilities for fruitful 

 research to-day, however simple or obscure the field of his activ- 

 ity, such as no earlier time has realized because our problems 

 are more precise, our methods more exact, and opportunity for 

 interchange of thought abundant. 



There is, indeed, no better example of the scientific method of 

 research than the performances, physical and mental, of the well- 

 equipped physician as he stands in the presence of this delicate 

 mechanism faltering in its tasks. He summons his facts by 

 story, by test, by observation ; frames from them, in the light of 

 all the lore which he can muster, a clear conception, or a theory 

 if you will, of the cause and nature of the disturbance ; and then, 

 by all the varied agencies at his command, assumes the role of 

 Nature's helper in the promotion of recovery. 



There is nothing which the worker in the laboratory can do 

 with his tubes and balances more strictly scientific than the work 

 which engages the practitioner in his daily rounds. For it is the 

 method, not the tools or place or subject of our tasks, which 

 makes them scientific or unscientific. It is just as easy to be 

 unscientific in the laboratory as at the bedside, and in either 

 place it is easy to lose sight of science in the detail of mechanical 

 routine. 



